Muirhead Islands to Jennis Bay

We awoke to clouds and light rain. It had rained on and off all night. I wanted the rain overnight so that all the salt spray we had accumulated on the exterior of Arctic Star would be washed away.  

However, our plan was to Kayak around the islands, so rain was not welcomed once daylight arrived. Not to be deterred, we suited up in our foul weather gear and launched the Kayaks. It was low tide, the time we think ideal to explore in Kayaks as so much is revealed by the receding waters. As we paddled around, we found clams, orange sea stars (star fish to those who have not yet been told they are not fish), crabs and a variety of little bits of life that cling to the rocks.   

Karen kayaking in the rain   

Off in the distance was a small rock island that dries with the low tide. On this now dry rock was a colony of harbour seals. About 50 in all. Karen set a course for the aquatic mammals. They let us get within about 300 yards before abandoning their rocky outcropping and entering the water with a splash. 

Shortly thereafter, we were surrounded by seal heads just visible above the water. They kept their distance at about 100 yards, but they shadowed us as we continued our travels past their temporary home.  

 All in all, we explored for about an hour and a half before the rain and cold drove us back to the warmth of our boat. Once aboard, we stowed the Kayaks and dinghy and retreated inside for a warming shower and lunch.  

Our next stop was Jennis Bay. This marina is only a couple of years old. It was built by Tom and Allyson Allo. Allyson had spent many summers here as a child when her Dad was a logger in the area. It seems she gathered up Tom and their two children and, as she tells it, kidnapped them to this magical place. When they arrived it was a bit of a disaster. But they persevered and rebuilt and added to what they found. Now they and visiting boaters enjoy a beautiful bay with spectacular views and peaceful waters.  

Their son, Orion, aged 10 and daughter, Charlie Marie, 8 are a delight. They are ever full of energy and eager to share their world with guests.  

Charlie Marie....Charming! 

The Marina is famous for Gumbo Night on Tuesday. Although we arrived on Tuesday, this late in the season with only one boat on dock, Gumbo Night was not in the cards. However, we were in for an even better and more special treat. It was Orion’s 10^th birthday, and we were invited to help celebrate.  

Crabs were cooked, prawns were boiled, and Orion sautéed the shrimp using his secret recipe while Tom made spinach artichoke dip. Karen and I brought wine and tried to help as best we could.   

 

 Let the feast begin   

  

 

 We all toast Orion on his 10th birthday   

After our feast, Allyson suggested we all “have a Kayak”. So Karen and I launch our red kayaks and the family split between two double kayaks and off we went to explore the bay.   

Allyson leads the way  

   

Tom captins the #2 kayak 

Bravo, the pirate dog, also launched into the water (against his master’s wishes and commands) and proceeded to swim in trail. Bravo lost his eye to a wolf attack earlier this summer and now sports a permanent wink.  

Bravo takes the wet route 

It suits his personality, which is loving and warm. Bravo’s sidekick is Kitty, the cat. Kitty is a fearless all black male, who just wants to be loved. Of course, Karen was most accommodating to his affections.  

While Kitty stayed behind, we proceeded to a small island (Huckleberry Island) in the bay where Orion and Charlie disembarked to pick berries. Soon the power swimmer Bravo joined them onshore. The adults, in a brief moment of “adult time, continued on to explore the abandoned barge that lay just beneath the surface of the back bay. Allyson even found and retrieved an old kite of Orion’s that had broken its tether and was thought lost forever.  

Allyson finds the long lost, missing kite 

Called back to the island of abandoned children by cries of who knows what is wrong, we retrieved the kids and Bravo, now content to sit with Mom in the Kayak.    

We retrieve the kids from "Huckleberry Island"  

Orion tries to get Karen to tow them back home  

Bravo thanks Mom for coming to get him, no swimming back today!!   

Dad and Orion paddle home   

It was a perfect “Kayak”, no wind, glassy seas and a sun low in the sky.   

Karen enjoys the frolicking fun   

Upon our return, all turned their attention to more food.  

 The requested birthday dessert was homemade blueberry and huckleberry pie, made with fresh picked huckleberries from nearby Huckleberry Island.  See, I can use "huckleberry" three times in the same sentence.  

I can only imagine what the wish was   

 

Charlie makes us smile   

We followed the sweets with a few party games before the yawns won the night and we all bid adieu for a good nights’ sleep.   

 

Arctic Star snug for the night in beautiful Jennis Bay

Davis Bay to Muirhead Islands

What a beautiful morning; blue skies and sunny, relatively warm weather, meaning about 67 degrees F. The low tide in Davis Bay revealed lots of previously unseen rocks and ledges. Luckily, we knew they were there from the charts!

Karen enjoying the morning sun

Bob had to join in the sun bathing

Karen cleans the anchor rode as she brings it onboard

Our destination for today is a group of islands known as the Muirheads. Its draw is its reputation as a great place to Kayak. As we headed down Drury Inlet, it was absolutely smooth as a mill pond. I spent some time photographing the pattern the boat wake left in the flat surface of the water. This is something we seldom see, as there is almost always a ripple on the water’s surface due to the prevailing winds.

Drury Inlet...smooth as glass

The approach to the Muirheads involves a bit of weaving between rocks and small islands, but the charts are well marked and our arrival at low tide means that many obstructions are in plain sight.

Due to the small size of our chosen anchorage, a stern tie was in order. The first stern tie of a trip is always an event we do not look forward to. It takes a couple of these to get back into the swing of things and this one was no exception.

The stern tie is an art, which involves precise judgment of distance. You want to be as close to shore as possible to keep the amount of line you need to pay out to a minimum, but, at the same time, not so close that you find yourself on the rocks come low tide.

It took me three times to get the distance just right. The hard part is judging how far out to drop your anchor in anticipation of how much forward the anchor rode will pull you away from shore. We had the added challenge of a cross current. We have faced these before. What typically happens is you get the boat just where you want it, but by the time you try to tie the stern line, the current has swung the boat out of position. We have used the dinghy as a tugboat in the past to reposition the stern of the boat long enough to set the stern line.

This time I decided on a different approach. As I backed the boat to shore, I maneuvered such that we were well up into the current. Then, I dashed down to the stern and threw over a stern anchor. As the current began to swing us back to the position I wanted as a final location, I set the anchor. It worked! The Stern anchor held the boat in postition until we could set the stern line ashore via the dinghy. Once the stern line was secure, I retrieved the stern anchor, it’s mission a complete success.

Later in the day, we took a dinghy ride around to check out the locale. The trusty portable GPS was with us to ensure we missed all the rocks. We took the dingy up to Sutherland Bay, checking out the logging operation, the supply boat “Sir James Douglass” and the Interfor floating barge camp and cookhouse, the Cypress Mist.

Dinghy Captain Bob

Sure was a pretty day

We continued on and saw the marked entrance to Actaeton Sound, but decided against it. We checked out some interesting anchorages on the north side before we headed back to Arctic Star to relax. There were tons of seals nearby as night began to fall, barking and grunting so loudly it seemed as if they were fighting well into the evening.

Arctic Star stern tied in the Muirheads

Genoa Bay to Fossil Bay

  Genoa Bay to Roche Harbor: 20.6NM

Roche Harbor to Matia Bay: 16.7NM

Matia Bay to Fossil Bay: 2.4NM

Up early in Genoa Bay to head for Roche Harbor and re-entry into the good old USA. We left about 9am for the 1 hour and 40 minute passage, seeing lots of great scenery and wildlife along the way.

Of course, as you might imagine, things don’t always go according to plan. As we got close to Roche Harbor, Bob took a potty break and left me at the helm. When he came back, he asked if I had slowed the boat down (which I hadn’t). Son of a gun! The starboard engine was stuck at 1800 RPMs. We had lost throttle control on that engine. Bob had to shut it down and glide onto the customs dock with just one engine (not really a big deal, it just sounds really cool). We were lucky that Customs wasn’t too busy and there was space for us without having to wait.

Bob cleared Customs while I tried to raise the charter company on the phone. It was a comedy of errors. Bob had the better luck. The Customs agent actually searched the boat, making Bob and I stand on the dock. Not sure what contraband he was seeking, but he did confiscate our lemon, lime and 2 jalapeno peppers. He also said heartily “Welcome back to the United States!” That was actually nice to hear!

Bob got tired of waiting for the call from the charter company so he went down into the engine room and found the throttle arm had detached from the engine. Hmmm…after cursing a blue streak because there were some missing bolts and tight fit issues, he got the boat up and running and we gladly left for Sucia and Matia islands.

Sucia means “foul” in Portuguese. Not foul as in odor, but foul as in “reef-strewn”. Need to watch your navigating around Sucia. But first we went to Matia Island, a nearby wildlife preserve. It was nice in Rolfe Cove and we snagged a mooring ball, as the dock was full. We had lunch and went ashore for a great walk around the island.

Best of Times snugged to a mooring ball in Matia Bay.

Docks at Matia Bay, Best of Times in Background.

Karen in old growth tree on Matia.

Old growth trees are truly massive.

We chatted with the folks on the dock for a while and teased the owners of the Nordhavn 40 about waxing their boat at the dock on such a lovely day. What dedication! Now, off to Sucia, where we caught a mooring ball in Fossil Bay. We just hung out on the boat and did a little pre-packing in anticipation of turning the boat in on Friday.

That was after we had to move the mooring ball from the back of the boat to the front in the howling wind. In a powerboat like ours, it’s easiest to boathook the mooring ball and attach a line from the stern. But because all boats ride best with their bow into the wind, you need to “walk” the ball around to the front. Not usually an issue unless the wind is howling. Bob inherited that job as I lacked the upper body strength to do it! We read and rested a bit, then had a lovely salmon dinner and an early evening.

Glenthorne Passage Genoa Bay

Glenthorne Passage to Fulford Harbor: 9.3NM 

Fulford Harbor to Genoa Bay: 11.5NM 

 Our trip is winding down, as we have to have Best of Times back to Friday Harbor in the U.S. by Friday morning. We also had to drop off the kayak (affectionately called “the canoe” by me) on SaltSpring Island today. So we took one more morning kayak in Glenthorne Passage, We went at low tide, which is definitely the most interesting. There were gobs and gobs of the purple starfish, crammed into newly exposed crevasses as the water receded. A few orange ones were seen here and there, but not a lot.  

 

Looking back up Glenthorne Passage from our anchorage. 

 We kayaked along the shore of Secret Island, which has cabins with small docks, and said hi to a resident who thought it was a terrific day to enjoy kayaking. He was right. As we headed toward the head of the cove and the private dock there, I thought I saw a dog on the dock watching us. Guess what? It was a big seal. He was high and dry on the dock, sunning himself. We approached stealthily and he watched us intently. Not threatened or unhappy, just alert. He scooted to the other side of the dock when we got close, but as we went around to the other side of the dock, he just sat there, craning his neck from time to time to see what we were up to. He reminded me of my cat Aspen. If he can’t see us, he must be hidden, right? Wrong!  

 We kept on kayaking and Bob pointed out a blue heron just feet away on the rocks, blended so well into the background that you could hardly notice him. How beautiful is all this wildlife? 

 On our way back to the boat, another boater said hello and “it’s a great day for kayaking, eh?”  All those Canadian “eh” jokes appear to be warranted. Really nice folk, they just say “eh” like we say “uh” or “huh” or “right” or “yes”.  

 

Picture perfect in the Kayak. 

 We decided to drop off the kayak in Fulford Harbor where the kayak place was located rather than going back to Ganges. We did this because we’d never been to Fulford and it sounded nice in the plethora of guidebooks you need for a trip like this. We found the tiny dock that abutted the kayak rental place and stayed there for 2 hours while we had a great lunch and reprovisioned at the local store. 

 Not content to linger, we headed to Genoa Bay for the night. Another spot in the guidebooks, it sounded lovely and like a nice marina, as we were ready to tie to a dock and have some shore power for the evening. Pretty place, nice docks, and an apparent convention of Nordic and American Tugs, by the look of it. Bob and I walked the docks, looking at the boats and some very nice boathouses, and I remarked that all we needed to make it a perfect day was a kitty. 

 Needless to say, ask and ye shall receive. There was a small art gallery on the docks, and the woman who ran it had a lovely 18 year old Maine Coon named Toby. This cat was so affectionate, I sat on the floor and it came over and sprawled out next to me and let me pet it for 20 minutes or so. Every time I stopped, Toby butted me with his head and convinced me to keep rubbing his jowls and his ears. This was fun! 

 Tonight we’re off to dinner at the restaurant just up from the docks and then tomorrow we’re off to Roche Harbor to clear U.S. customs and get ourselves back into the States.

Pirate's Cove to Glenthorne Passage

Pirate’s Coveto Princess Cove: 13NM  

Princess Cove to Glenthorne Passage: 10.3NM 

We had heard that holding was poor in Pirate’s Cove, and that anchors had a tendency to drag, but we were snug with our well-set anchor and stern tie. It was a hazy, cloudy morning, and we were in no hurry to move along, so we took the dinghy over to one of the two dinghy docks to hike a bit. 

   

Pirate's Cove complete with a treasure chest. 

 

Someone took the time to hand paint the welcome sign at Pirate's Cove. 

Pirate’s Cove has been a marine park since 1966, and it has wonderful trails that are easy to walk and really pretty. We walked to the other side of the island where some kayakers were making camp.  There are nice campsites and I am always amazed how clean the outdoor toilets are and how there’s always toilet paper. Guess those park hosts keep pretty busy. 

 

The B.C. parks maintain a nice infrastructure. Take a look at these nice stairs to a campsite on a beautiful little bay. 

 We went back to the boat and decided to depart. It was a bit crazy again, as the wind wanted to blow us into the concrete park host floating dock while we scurried to haul in the stern tie and get the anchor up. Captain Bob came through again, and off we went, back through the tricky entrance (at low tide you can really see those dangerous reefs) and out into deep water again. 

 

Best of Times in Pirates Cove.  

 

Trawler enjoying a peaceful, secluded anchorage on the south side of the island. 

Our agenda was to stop at Wallace Island, a favorite from our last trip. I had decided that we’d anchor in Princess Cove and have lunch aboard before doing some exploring. Another shallow and interesting entrance behind us, we snagged a great spot to anchor and had lunch while we watched other boats come and go. It was fairly low tide, so it seemed like a great time to kayak. 

The kayaking was just so-so until we noticed the rocks that are part of the reef guarding the entrance to Princess Cove. As we headed that way, we heard lots of snorting. Yes, there were seals! We were able to get within 75 feet or so of a bunch of seals sunning themselves on the rocks. The younger ones were a bit unsure of us, but the two big bull seals just stared at us with pretended indifference as we snuck closer (“snuck” being a tough thing for a bright yellow kayak to do). The seals were really funny, they liked to swim near and check us out, and then zip away to a safe distance. We even saw one seal get a mouthful of water and spit it directly onto another one’s face. Just like kids! 

We headed to Prevost Island and Glenthorne Passage for the night. I was anxious to check out this anchorage as we had enjoyed Annette Inlet earlier in the trip. The anchorage was absolutely lovely and there were only 4 boats at the head of the cove. Quiet and peaceful, it was a lovely evening.